The Language of Portugal: What Portuguese People Speak

Portugal speaks European Portuguese, one branch of a language spoken by over 260 million people across four continents. Full guide with the lusophone world, comparisons to Spanish and Brazilian, and how to actually learn it.

If you are planning a trip to Portugal, moving there for the digital nomad or D7 visa, or just curious about the country, one of the first questions people ask is the simplest one: what language do people actually speak in Portugal? The short answer is Portuguese. The longer answer is more interesting, because Portuguese is a global language spoken across four continents, and the version spoken in Portugal is quite different from the one you have probably heard in Brazilian music or telenovelas.

This guide gives you the full picture: the official language of Portugal, where else Portuguese is spoken, how it differs from Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, what languages were spoken here before Portuguese, and whether you can get by with English.

Portuguese: the official language of Portugal

Portuguese has been the official language of Portugal for over 800 years, since the founding of the Kingdom of Portugal in 1139. Today it is the mother tongue of essentially the entire population of about 10 million people. You will hear it everywhere: in shops, on television, in official documents, at parliament, in schools, in Fado bars.

Within Portugal, the language is called Português, or more specifically Português europeu (European Portuguese) or Português de Portugal to distinguish it from the Brazilian variant. Portuguese speakers in Portugal do not usually feel the need to specify: for them, Portuguese is Portuguese, and Brazilian is a variation.

Portuguese belongs to the Romance language family, evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken by Roman colonisers in what is today Portugal and the northwest of Spain. It is one of the six Ibero-Romance languages and shares roots with Spanish, Galician, Catalan, French, and Italian.

Where else is Portuguese spoken? The lusophone world

Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world by native speakers, sitting comfortably in the top seven globally. It is the only European language that is spoken as a majority language on four continents, a direct legacy of Portugal’s 15th- and 16th-century maritime expansion and colonial history.

The community of Portuguese-speaking countries is called the lusophone world (in Portuguese, lusofonia), from the Roman name Lusitania for the region that would become Portugal.

Country	Continent	Portuguese status	Approx. native speakers
Brazil	South America	Official, universal	~215 million
Portugal	Europe	Official, universal	~10 million
Angola	Africa	Official, majority	~30 million
Mozambique	Africa	Official, growing daily use	~15 million
Guinea-Bissau	Africa	Official, alongside Creole	~1 million
Cape Verde	Africa	Official, alongside Kriolu	~600,000
São Tomé and Príncipe	Africa	Official, majority	~220,000
Equatorial Guinea	Africa	Co-official with Spanish and French	Small minority
East Timor	Asia	Co-official with Tetum	~500,000
Macau (China SAR)	Asia	Co-official with Chinese	Small minority

Together, these countries form the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which coordinates cultural, political, and linguistic cooperation across the lusophone world.

Total native Portuguese speakers worldwide: roughly 260 million. Add second-language speakers and the number climbs above 275 million, making Portuguese the sixth most spoken language on Earth by native speakers.

Portuguese in Africa (the PALOP countries)

The five African countries where Portuguese is an official language are often grouped together as the PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa): Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese in these countries generally follows the European Portuguese variant, not the Brazilian one, though each has its own local vocabulary, accents, and often a creole language spoken alongside Portuguese.

European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese: are they the same language?

Officially, yes. Both are considered varieties of the same language, and the 1990 Orthographic Agreement brought their written forms much closer together. In practice, they sound different, use different everyday words, and follow different pronunciation rules.

The most noticeable differences:

• Pronunciation: European Portuguese swallows unstressed vowels and uses a soft “sh” sound at the end of many words. Brazilian Portuguese is more open, melodic, with clearer vowels.
• Vocabulary: everyday words often differ. Portugal: comboio (train), autocarro (bus), casa de banho (bathroom), pequeno-almoço (breakfast). Brazil: trem, ônibus, banheiro, café da manhã.
• Pronouns: Portugal uses “tu” for informal address. Brazil defaults to “você”.
• Grammar: Portugal uses “estar a + infinitive” for the present continuous (estou a comer). Brazil uses the gerund (estou comendo).

Speakers of both variants generally understand each other, but a learner who has only trained on Brazilian audio will struggle in Portugal, especially with listening comprehension. If you are learning Portuguese specifically for Portugal, use European Portuguese materials from the start. Our full European Portuguese guide walks through the differences and the resources that actually match Portugal.

Is Portuguese similar to Spanish?

Yes, quite. Portuguese and Spanish share roughly 89% of their vocabulary, which is one of the highest lexical similarities between any two major European languages. Both descend from Vulgar Latin and evolved in neighbouring regions of the Iberian Peninsula.

But similar does not mean interchangeable.

• Written: a Spanish speaker can read most Portuguese text with reasonable success, and vice versa. Newspaper headlines, signs, and menus are usually understandable across the language line.
• Spoken: here the asymmetry appears. Portuguese speakers tend to understand spoken Spanish fairly well, but Spanish speakers often struggle with spoken Portuguese, especially European Portuguese with its compressed vowels and “sh” sounds. Brazilian Portuguese is easier for Spanish speakers to follow because the vowels are more open.
• Grammar: the core structure is similar, with the same verb tense system, gendered nouns, and similar sentence order. Small differences exist in prepositions, in the use of the personal infinitive, and in the placement of pronouns.

Learning Portuguese as a Spanish speaker (or the other way around) is one of the easier language switches available. Expect to reach conversational level in half the time it would take you to learn from scratch.

What languages were spoken in Portugal before Portuguese?

Portuguese as we know it today did not exist before roughly the 12th century. Before that, the region that is now Portugal saw a long procession of languages layered on top of each other.

• Before Roman times (before 200 BC): Celtic and pre-Roman Iberian languages, including Lusitanian, spoken by the tribes the Romans called Lusitani. Very little of this survives except in place names and personal names.
• Roman era (from 200 BC): Vulgar Latin arrived with Roman colonisation and gradually replaced the local languages. This is the direct ancestor of Portuguese.
• Germanic era (5th to 8th century): Visigoths and other Germanic peoples ruled the peninsula but adopted Vulgar Latin themselves. They contributed some vocabulary (like guerra, war) but not the language backbone.
• Moorish era (8th to 12th century): Arabic ruled much of the peninsula, including parts of what is now Portugal. Arabic contributed several hundred loanwords still used in Portuguese today, especially in words starting with “al-” (algarve, açúcar, arroz).
• Galician-Portuguese (9th to 14th century): a common language spoken across northwest Iberia (modern Galicia and northern Portugal). This is the direct parent of modern Portuguese, which slowly separated as the Kingdom of Portugal expanded southward.

Modern European Portuguese is the descendant of this Galician-Portuguese, shaped by centuries of contact with Latin, Arabic, later colonial influence, and eventually with English and other global languages.

Regional variations within Portugal

Portugal is small, but it is not linguistically uniform. You will hear noticeable regional differences within the country, plus one officially recognised minority language most travellers have never heard of.

Mainland dialects

Portuguese in Portugal is roughly split into two dialect groups: northern Portuguese (spoken in Porto, Braga, and the surrounding regions) and southern-central Portuguese (spoken in Lisbon, Coimbra, the Alentejo, and the Algarve). The differences are mostly in pronunciation. Northern Portuguese preserves some older sounds, southern dialects have more “sh” sounds and swallowed vowels. Lisbon Portuguese is the de facto standard heard on national television and used in language learning materials.

Azores and Madeira

The Portuguese spoken in the Azores and Madeira islands has its own accents, distinct enough that even mainland Portuguese speakers sometimes need a moment to tune in. Azorean Portuguese in particular has heavy vowel shifts and its own everyday vocabulary. The islands preserve older Portuguese features that have simplified on the mainland.

Mirandese: the second official language of Portugal

Very few people know this: Portugal officially recognises a second language, Mirandese (Mirandés in Mirandese, Mirandês in Portuguese). It is spoken by roughly 15,000 people in the Miranda do Douro region in the far northeast, near the Spanish border.

Mirandese is not a dialect of Portuguese. It is a separate language, descended from Astur-Leonese, more closely related to the Asturian language of northern Spain than to Portuguese. It has been co-official in the Miranda do Douro region since 1999. Road signs and official documents there appear in both languages.

Do people in Portugal speak English?

Yes, generally. Portugal ranks consistently high on the EF English Proficiency Index, typically in the global top ten. English is widely spoken in Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve, and any tourist-facing setting: hotels, restaurants, shops, museums, transport hubs. Most people under 45 have at least functional English, and younger Portuguese people often speak it fluently.

Outside major cities and tourist regions, English is less common. In rural Alentejo, in small northern towns, and among older speakers, Portuguese is your only reliable option. Even a handful of phrases makes a difference in how you are received, and Portuguese people are known for being generous with learners who make the effort.

If you plan to live in Portugal long-term, deal with the tax office (Finanças), attend appointments at the health service (SNS), or build real friendships, you will need Portuguese. English will get you through the first few months. Portuguese changes your experience of the country entirely.

How to learn Portuguese for Portugal

If you have decided that European Portuguese is your target, the fastest way to get started is with a course built specifically for Portugal Portuguese, not a Brazilian course with a European label. We cover the full learning path, comparisons of all the main apps and courses, and honest recommendations in our complete European Portuguese guide.

Short version: pair a structured daily course (17-Minute-Languages European Portuguese or Pimsleur European Portuguese) with real listening input (Portuguese Lab Podcast, Portuguese With Leo on YouTube), and add weekly conversation practice with a Portugal-based tutor once you hit A2. In three months, you can reach a solid A2. In a year of daily practice, you reach comfortable B2.

For the practical vocabulary you will need first, browse our Portuguese phrases reference, with English translations and IPA pronunciation.

For the official reference on the lusophone world, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) is the authoritative source for statistics, cooperation programmes, and cultural data across all nine Portuguese-speaking countries.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Language of Portugal

What is the official language of Portugal?

Portuguese, specifically European Portuguese (Português europeu). It has been the official language for over 800 years and is spoken by essentially the entire population of about 10 million people. Portugal also officially recognises Mirandese as a regional co-official language in the northeast.

Is Portuguese the same as Brazilian?

They are two variants of the same language. Written form is close, especially after the 1990 Orthographic Agreement. Spoken form differs significantly in pronunciation, everyday vocabulary, and grammar. Speakers of each variant generally understand each other, but a learner trained only on Brazilian will struggle in Portugal.

How many people speak Portuguese in the world?

Roughly 260 million native speakers across Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. Including second-language speakers, the number rises above 275 million, making Portuguese the sixth most spoken language on Earth by native speakers.

Is Portuguese similar to Spanish?

Yes, Portuguese and Spanish share about 89% lexical similarity. Written text is largely mutually readable. Spoken language is less symmetric: Portuguese speakers tend to understand Spanish better than the other way around, because European Portuguese has compressed vowels and consonant sounds that Spanish speakers find harder to parse.

Do people in Portugal speak English?

Yes, widely, especially in Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve, and tourist areas. Portugal ranks in the top ten globally for English proficiency. Outside major cities and among older speakers, English is much less common. For daily life beyond the tourist trail, Portuguese is a real advantage.

What language was spoken in Portugal before Portuguese?

Vulgar Latin, brought by Roman colonisation from around 200 BC, is the direct ancestor of Portuguese. Before Rome, the region spoke Celtic and pre-Roman Iberian languages including Lusitanian. Portuguese as a distinct language emerged from Galician-Portuguese in the 9th to 12th centuries.

What is the second official language of Portugal?

Mirandese (Mirandês), a language descended from Astur-Leonese and spoken by roughly 15,000 people in the Miranda do Douro region in the northeast of Portugal. It has been co-official there since 1999. It is a distinct language, not a dialect of Portuguese, and it is closer to the Asturian language of northern Spain.

Related Learning Resources

Start here for the full learning picture:

• Learn European Portuguese: the complete guide
• Portuguese phrases with English translation and IPA
• Learn Portuguese with Babbel (honest review)
• Learn Portuguese with Mondly (review)

General language learning:

• The different ways of learning languages
• Learning vocabulary successfully
• Motivated language learning